Charles Victor Thirion

The James Prendergast Library, acquired through the Prendergast Bequest, 1891
Sale: Stair Galleries, 10 September 2020, lot 58

Probably, Émile Bellier de la Chavignerie and Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire Général des Artistes de l'École Française, Paris, n.d., vol. 2, p. 565.
Probably, Le Monde Illustré, Paris, 1874, vol. XXXV, p. 58.
Probably, Nestor Paturot, Le Salon de 1874, Paris, 1874, p. 247-8.
Descriptive Catalogue of the Art Gallery of the James Prendergast Library Association, Jamestown, 1906, no. 20 (as Industry and incorrectly attributed to Eugène Romain Thirion).
Katherine E. Manthorne, The Mirror Up to Nature: A Catalogue of 19th and 20th Century Paintings in the Collection of The James Prendergast Library Association, Jamestown, New York, 1982, p. 51 (as Industry and incorrectly attributed to Eugène Romain Thirion).

Probably, Paris, Salon des Artistes Francais, 1874, no. 1709

William Bouguereau was not only one of the most successful artists of the nineteenth century but one of its most influential teachers at both the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. Among his early students were Leon Perrault, Alfred-Francois Delobbe, Gustave Jacquet, Guillaume Seignac and Charles Victor Thirion. Thirion not only followed Bouguereau’s Academic technique but choice of subject, sending compositions of young peasant women absorbed in their daily tasks to the Salon. The artist soon attracted the attention of the powerful dealer Goupil who acquired dozens of the artist’s works through the 1870s with a significant number soon delivered to American collectors.